Bowen State School eNewsletter

End to an Enormous Term

What a huge term we have just completed and a long list of highly engaging and educational activities. We started the term with community performances aligned to NAIDOC day “The Forgotten Warriors”, Challenge Games, Prep Transition Sessions, Science Show, Junior and Senior Athletics and The Fancy Dress Performances. So many varied and exciting events that make our school term highly engaging and community focused environment.

Students have been working hard within the units of work this term. Classroom walkthroughs and lesson observations have confirmed this. Early in Term 4 families will have the opportunity to meet with the classroom teacher to hear the success from this term and discuss the goals for Term 4. We know that the final 10 weeks of teaching and learning places our students well to transfer the learning across confidently into the following year.

Principal Networking

Last week members of the leadership team visited Cannonvale State School to collaborate with cluster principals and discussed the three levels of planning, moderation of the Australian Curriculum and engaged in a tour of the Cannonvale State School and classrooms.

We hosted a Whitsunday/Bowen cluster Inclusion forum here at Bowen State and enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with other leadership teams in sharing the key work to support our diverse students. The two days provided opportunity for reflection and clarified the next steps for Bowen State School.

Term 4

As we track closer to the end of 2022 we are reflecting on the goals set within our Annual Implementation Plan AIP and looking at the impact we have made to support our learners. Term 4 will be used to confirm the patterns in our data to celebrate growth and look for the next lift in 2023.

Fortunately, the review findings that have been provided this year have assisted in select actions that must be included in our AIP plan for next year. Staff will have the opportunity to review the draft documents that have been co constructed and will be ready to guide our conversations to support students at our school.

Transitions for Prep and Year 6 will be a priority in Term 4 and we want to ensure our future students coming into to Bowen State school and exiting to High School will have the best opportunity to transition through and exciting but sometimes daunting time. Here at Bowen State School we know that transitions are for the whole family. Feedback so far has been extremely positive on the programs offered. All year levels will be supported with our movement across the year levels and staff spend time regularly in Term 4 preparing students for the big move up into the next year level.

In closing I would like to thank staff and families for your resilience through a challenging year. I believe a well earnt rest will support the health and well-being our entire school community. Looking forward to catching up with families around the school holidays and hearing all the great stories of what adventures families got up to. Until next term have a great couple of weeks.

Christien Payne
Principal

I believe in: Hard Work Honesty Transparency

On Thursday 8th September we had a special visit from the Mickey Thompson Promo Vechile that attended the Don River Dash last weekend. We would like to thank Bowen Tyre and Mechanical for the drop in.

Charlee Snell

At the beginning of Term 3, Year 5 student Charlee Snell travelled to the Gold Coast and represented North Queensland for Cross Country for the second consecutive year.

Months of training and competing at representative level was put into Charlee competing. Charlee competed against approximately 100 other 11 year old girls all representing various parts of Queensland.

The weather was not favourable during the competition. The 3km track was muddy, slippery and very hilly. Congratulations to Charlee and her family for their dedication in her chosen sport.

Breakfast Club has been a hit the last few weeks. Chappy Lisa's Pancakes have just been getting better and better by the week! Breakfast Club is on Monday mornings.

Thank you Abbott Point!

On Friday we welcomed Lauren Barber- Environment & Community Officer and Susan Brown- Community Engagement Coordinator from Abbott Point operations.

We celebrated their generous grant donation of $15,000 which was received earlier this year.

Bowen State School has used the funds to purchase new readers for all year levels. We now have a range of engaging texts for our students from Prep - 6.

We thank Abbot Point for their ongoing support to our school.

Over the past few weeks we have been focusing on building our resilience by practicing mindfulness. Students have been enjoying regular breathing exercises, yoga and practicing gratitude.

Students have also been practicing their visualisation skills as it will assist them completing their next English assessment. The photo shows the creatures that students visualised while listening to a story.

As part of our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) lessons over the past three weeks we have been explicitly teaching RESILIENCE: being responsible for our own emotions and actions. Resilience being able to bounce back after stress/challenges.

We have explored coping skills to support our resilience:

Triangle breathing
Screaming into a pillow
Jumping in trampoline
Running on the oval
Listening to music

The list goes on.

Being assertive supports being resilient. It's something we will explore next term.

Happy holidays, I look forward to seeing you at the beaches and parks over the break!

Kind Regards,

Danielle UpkettGuidance Officer

On Thursday 1st September Bowen State School opened their doors to the community to come and see the BSS Performing Arts Spectacular. The Event was a huge success with many family, friends and community members attending. There was muliple performances such as choir, instrumental, circus acts, juggling team display and dancing.

A special thanks to Mr Dunn, Mrs Conway and Mrs Mattiske who made the event go ahead.

Intrumental

All instrumental music students will be involved in a short concert for the Year 3 students during school time on Thursday Week 2. Please make sure all music students bring their instruments on Thursday Week 1 as we prepare for this concert. ALL instrumental students should also be attending regular band rehearsals at first break every Thursday.

Amanda Mattiske
Instrumental Teacher

On Tuesday 13th September, some of the Grades 4's, 5's and 6's competed in the Woolworths Cricket Blast at the Sporting Complex.

A huge thank you to Seth McIntosh and the rest of the Bowen Cricket Club at Bowen Cricket and to Bo Saunders from Queensland Cricket for organising the event.

Thank you to Mrs Groves, Mr Gulliver, Mr Seago & Miss Kunde for supporting our students today.

And a HUGE Thank you to Mr Dunn who is always helping organise events. You are a true asset to BSS!

As the terms comes to a close, our diverse learners at Bowen State School have participated in some many extra activities over this term, Challenge Games and Early High School transition afternoon tea on our school site followed up by a afternoon or rocket launching and other fun activities up at the highschool were had by all.

Looking into next term, we will be transitiong our students into the next phase of learning, visiting new classrooms and learning blocks around the school. Our ECDP students are already visiting their new schools, meeting new staff and spending time with their new peers.

Our staff at BSS will be in consultation with many families to support this transition into the next learning phase of their childs edcuation. Please keep an eye out on Facebook, emails or notes in your childs bag.

Ann-Jay Sibley
Head of Inclusion